A runoff phenomenon caused by heavy rains caused a victim in Aisne on the night of Wednesday May 1 to Thursday May 2. Lightning and hailstones also hit Île-de-France and a large central part of the country. Calvados remains on alert for a risk of flooding.
The area was one of 19 departments on orange alert for violent storms. In Aisne, a 57-year-old woman died and her partner was injured on the night of Wednesday May 1 to Thursday May 2 in a mudslide following storms, in the village of Courmelles, the prefecture announced. “An intense and very localized precipitation event caused a phenomenon of runoff and mudslides in the town of Courmelles”writes the prefecture in a press release. “A mudslide engulfed this area of around ten homes and accumulated particularly in one house,” mayor (without label) Arnaud Svrcek reported to AFP. According to him, there was 1.50m of water in this house. The man “managed to escape, with bruising to the head but the lady was carried away”, he lamented. “56 firefighters” intervened and a reception center was set up for the victims.
This Thursday morning, Météo-France lifted its alerts in all the departments concerned. A large part of central France, including the Paris region, was hit by severe weather in the evening and night, with violent thunderstorms accompanied by hailstones and heavy rain. “The storms evacuated into the Channel, towards England”, the weather agency said in its latest bulletin issued at 3:18 a.m.
Calvados nevertheless remains on orange “flood” alert due to significant rises in water expected in the Touques basin.
According to the Flightradar website, around ten planes which were due to land at Roissy airport were diverted. Flights to Orly were also redirected to other airports. Images of flooding in terminal 2 of Roissy airport are also circulating on X.
It fell locally “between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. the equivalent of two weeks of rain in the month of May to the north and east of Paris”according to the Weather Channel. “6,370 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes were observed this Wednesday, May 1, mainly between the Center-East, Normandy and the Paris basin,” she adds, specifying that it is the “2nd stormiest day since September 2023”.
Furthermore, large hailstones fell in particular in the Chablis region (Yonne), with significant damage to the vines.
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